Medical Marijuana Company Implodes on Twitter

By
Dana Larsen, Cannabis Culture
on September 5, 2014

CANNABIS CULTURE – On Wednesday, MediJean CEO Jean Chiasson began tweet-attacking his business partners, accusing their company cannabis breeder of theft, and threatening to sue Health Canada and the RCMP.

The next day he deleted all of those tweets and claimed his account had been hacked, even as he confirmed the basic accuracy of the tweets in question.

MediJean is one of many companies waiting for Health Canada to approve their application to become a legally licensed producer of medical cannabis. They have been in the media several times showing off their large Richmond facility, which received city approval in March.

Media reports say that Jean Chiasson, who is the “jean” in MediJean, has invested $10 million into the company, and that they have at least 35 staff members on the payroll. Since they don’t yet have a Health Canada license, they have not yet sold any actual cannabis, and have been growing only for research purposes.

“Anton Mattadeen talks bullshit. Knows nothing of medical marijuana,” says one tweet. “Chris Dollard knows nothing of medical marijuana or the business of medical marijuana. Before this year he was just a user,” says another.

Chiasson went further in his tweets about Charles Scott, MediJean’s Director of Research, described on the MediJean website as “a recognized expert in the field of cannabis genetics.” Scott is known as the owner of Reeferman Seeds, one of many Canadian seed companies operating in a legal grey zone, and has his name and photo displayed on the Reeferman website.

I spoke with Chiasson by phone, and he told me that his Twitter account had been hacked. He told me that he had now regained control and deleted the tweets.

However, Chiasson also said he agreed with the what most of the tweets said. He repeated his claim that Charles Scott had sent letters to the RCMP and Health Canada in an effort to sabotage their license application, and that Scott had abused the company and stolen seeds. Chiasson also confirmed that he, Charles Scott, Anton Mattadeen and Chris Dollard were all leaving the company.

I find it hard to believe Chiasson’s claim that his account was hacked, since he confirmed the essential content of all the supposedly hacked tweets, and the timing of the hack seems too coincidental. Chiasson claimed that it must have been an insider at the company who hacked his account, and that he is working to find out who it was.

MediJean generated controversy among the medical cannabis community last year, when they announced their support for raids against home medical growers and cannabis dispensaries, and said they planned on putting some of their profits into funding the anti-cannabis DARE program.

Update, Sept 5, 7pm.
I spoke with Charles Scott by phone on Friday evening. He told me that he had resigned from MediJean over 5 months ago, and was no longer involved with the company. He denied Chiasson’s allegations, and said he is currently suing MediJean for breach of contract over control of the genetics used in their facility. “It’s a really unfortunate situation,” said Scott.